Friday, October 29, 2010

Scary Halloween Cocktail

"One Corpse Reviver recipe was entered by name in a little British tome titled 'Drinks of All Kinds' in 1895, and by Prohibition there were perhaps four or five examples of them. Of my favorite, the #2, Savoy barman Harry Craddock cautioned, 'Four taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.' Personally, I can't imagine drinking these in the morning, but then, no one has asked."

Originally formulated as a hangover cure, Haigh writes that Corpse Revivers were a class of drink rather than a single recipe. (Think "hair of the dog.")

Bright and citrusy, with the edges smoothed by Cointreau and Lillet (one of my favorite bath time-with-ice-and-a-twist liqueurs), this is a simple pre-dinner cocktail to make, and would easily adapt to pitcher proportions for a party.

For Halloween batches, a maraschino cherry is the perfect drop of blood in the bottom of the glass, but for everyday drinking we prefer amarena cherries for their more complex, and less artificial, flavor.